Tuft pickers serve to remove individual tufts of bristles from a bristle magazine in succession in order to feed them to a brush making machine. The tuft picker essentially is a slider which reciprocates in a sliding motion at an open side of the bristle magazine and has a tuft picking notch in which the bristles forming the tuft will collect during the sliding motion past the bristle magazine. The tuft picker transports each separated tuft of bristles to a processing station, for example a tufting tool, and is then moved back to the bristle magazine for separating the next tuft of bristles. With each working stroke of the tuft picker, a tuft of bristles is separated in this way.
The profile of the tuft picking notch dictates the quantity of the bristles that are separated in each working stroke of the tuft picker. In order that a single tuft picker device can be used for separating tufts having different quantities of bristles, the effective depth of the tuft picking notch can be varied by laterally covering part of the profile with a shield member. Rather than the bottom of the tuft picking notch, it is then the shield member that defines the depth up to which the bristles can penetrate into this notch. A tuft picking device including a tuft picking notch having an adjustable effective depth is disclosed, e.g., in DE 40 40 297 C2. A device of this type is suitable for separating bristle tufts of different cross-sections for different brushes.
A knot picking machine is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 1,641,686 having a member is provided on the tuft picker, which can be moved transversely to the slot so as to regulate the effective area of the slot for receiving bristles. The member is substantially semi-circular and is fixedly mounted with a screw.
In connection with modern brushes, in particular toothbrushes, it has been desirable to have bristle tufts of different cross-sectional shapes and sizes that are arranged next to each other in a bristle field. Brushes of this kind are complicated to produce since the high-speed, efficiently operating brush making machines available can not be used for making them.